


fluorescent adolescent

by buckybear (eds_spagheds)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, First Meetings, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Identity Reveal, M/M, Meet-Cute, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Team as Family, domestic iron family (extended edition), everyone needs a hug tbh, im just gonna pretend it never happened tbh, may and pepper are bffs because I say so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 21:26:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19028254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eds_spagheds/pseuds/buckybear
Summary: how harley keener and peter parker came to find each otherand the first time they almost lost each other





	fluorescent adolescent

**Author's Note:**

> I took a little break from my pen pal au to write this little thing and I had a lot of fun with it so I hope you guys like it:) I’ll be back to the other fic soon though, don’t worry

FPeter Parker had to become an orphan before he even started preschool.

Peter Parker had to watch as his entire body became mutated from a spider bite on a middle school field trip.

Peter Parker had to watch his uncle get shot and killed in front of him.

Peter Parker had to watch his aunt and only family left struggle through every day just to support him: the child that she never asked for, yet swore she would always take care of.

Peter Parker had to give up his chance with the girl he loved in hopes of stopping powerful weapons and technology from getting into the wrong hands.

Peter Parker had to save himself from getting crushed under the rubble of an entire building with nothing more than his own strength.

Peter Parker had to smuggle himself into space to try and help save half the world’s population, only to fall victim himself.

Peter Parker had gone through a lot of shit over the years, way more than anyone his age should ever have to bear the weight of. He watched those he loved be taken away from him, he tried to save those that didn’t deserve to be hurt, and he did everything he could to protect what he had left of his family.

* * *

Harley Keener didn’t have much of a family to protect anymore. 

Harley Keener watched his father walk out on their family when he thought everyone in the house had already gone to sleep.

Harley Keener met his hero and had the first sliver of hope in months, only for it to disappear when his mom began drinking a few weeks after the mechanic went back home.

Harley Keener tried to protect his little sister when his father came back years later, drunk or high or a combination of the two, demanding money from the family savings fund.

Harley Keener tried not to cry when his mother gave his father the access code to his and his sister’s college savings account to spend on coke and a ticket out of the country.

Harley Keener tried to protect his little sister from the seemingly endless brigade of disappointments in her life, but to no avail.

Harley Keener tried to feel safe when he and Abbie moved in with Tony Stark.

Harley Keener tried to convince himself that their years of broken homes and raising each other were behind them.

Harley Keener tried to be happy for the first time since his dad left when he met Peter Parker.

* * *

If he was being honest, Tony didn’t even think to introduce Harley to Peter until it was too late.

He was only a couple months into the whole parenting thing and he kind-of forgot that he also had an intern who was finally out of school for the summer and would be around the tower much more often than just weeknights.

He was incredibly overwhelmed and honestly embarrassed that he had such a large lapse of judgement until he arrived home from a board meeting with Pepper to find Harley and Peter in Tony’s lab, laughing loudly as they worked on Natasha’s widow bites together; something Peter had done on his own dozens of times, yet there they were.

Tony watched the two boys for a few minutes, observing how they seemed to act as comfortably around each other as they would if they’d known each other for years rather than hours at most. Huh.

“I see the fun started without me,” Tony teases, making his presence known as the boys both whipped around in their chairs.

“Mr. Stark!” Peter squeaked, surprisingly startled. Tony eyed him curiously, wondering how his heightened senses failed to notice Tony was there.

“Tony, why didn’t you tell me your intern was my age?” Harley asked, one of the most genuine smiles on his face that Tony had seen since he came to New York. “I just assumed he was a grad student at the youngest.”

Peter blushed, ducking his head a little bit. “Yeah, Mr. Stark. Also the fact that you have a kid!”

“Two, technically,” Tony mumbled under his breath, knowing full well that Peter would still be able to hear him.

Peter gaped at him for a moment before crossing his arms and smiling coyly.

“I’m hurt, Mr. Stark. I really am. And here I was thinking you found it weird all those times I accidentally called you dad.”

Harley laughed beside him, still tinkering with the widow bites.

“Yeah, dad,” he mocked, putting down his work. “I literally have no friends here and you failed to mention that you knew more teenagers in New York than I did.”

Tony rolled his eyes, laughing a little at the boys’ witty remarks. He would be the first to admit he loved those two boys like they were his own, but there was no denying that the two together were bound to be a real force of nature. Still, he was glad. Hell, he was sure no one could resist Peter Parker, but he was glad that Harley had taken a liking to him. The kid needed some friends, after all.

“You two play nice, don’t test the bites on each other, Pete you know the drill,” he told them with a small smile, turning to leave the two alone again.

“Aye aye, Mr. Stark,” Peter called after him, the two boys breaking into more laughter as Tony retreated down the hallway. Abbie was sitting at the kitchen island when he walked further down the hall and she looked at him with way more understanding than any twelve year old should have.

“So...Peter?” She spoke up, not looking up from her homework. Tony chucked, brewing a pot of coffee.

“What about him?”

“Harley,” she sighed in the exasperated way that a sister does when she’s embarrassed of her older brother. “Took one look at him and he’s already falling head over heels.”

Tony froze. What was she talking about?

“He...what?”

Abbie laughed a little, finally setting down her pencil.

“My brother,” she restated in a jokingly patronizing tone that reminded Tony too much of himself. “Saw your intern and immediately decided he wanted to jump his bones.”

Tony almost dropped his coffee mug at the words uttered by the middle schooler sitting at his counter. She went back to her homework like it was nothing and Tony couldn’t stop staring down the hallway at the door to the lab.

Abbie seemed to notice Tony’s shock and she sighed, smirking slightly.

“I know for a fact he told you he was gay,” Abbie reasoned, Tony still trying to wrap his brain around the idea of Harley and Peter in a relationship. Peter had come out to him as bisexual almost a year ago and even though Harley and Abbie didn’t know that, he couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen.

“Yeah,” Tony breathed, snapping out of it. “Yeah he did, it’s just…”

“Weird that your first pseudo son has a crush on your new pseudo-son figure?” Abbie finished for him.

Tony sighed. “It’s weird that I never even considered it. Hell, I wasn’t even going to introduce them. I just figured…I don’t even know. And stop saying pseudo, it’s too big of a word to come out of your tiny mouth.” He paused for a moment. “They’d be good for each other.”

Abbie seemed pleased with their conversation as she smirked and went back to her homework.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Tony knew she was happy for her brother, whether she would ever admit it or not.

* * *

As fate had it, by the same time the next year Peter and Harley had been dating for almost ten months. 

It had been a whirlwind of sorts with Harley confessing his crush on Peter to Tony himself and Peter doing the same only a few days later, much to Tony’s amusement.

Harley even started going to Peter’s school after a few weeks of moving in. He met all of Peter’s friends and they all instantly liked him as much as Peter did.

Peter started spending more time at the tower and so did May. She and Pepper were becoming incredibly close, especially with Pepper needing May’s advice with her newfound motherhood. They both even vowed to make time to take Abbie out to get their nails done together every other week.

Their little family was stronger than ever.

It was only fitting that it would all fall apart when they were least expecting it.

* * *

Thursday nights were family dinner nights. It was the only day where Harley and Peter didn’t have decathlon rehearsal, Abbie didn’t have soccer practice, May didn’t work nights, Tony and Pepper didn’t schedule any company meetings, and Rhodey would fly in from upstate. 

Rhodey and Pepper made lasagna and salad and all eight of them, including a reluctant Happy, sat around the dining table smiling and laughing as they all recounted the events of the past few days. Everyone was happy. Everyone was safe.

May nearly jumped out of her seat when FRIDAY sounded the lockdown alarm.

Tony locked eyes with Peter and Rhodey and the three immediately stood up, the two men calling in their suits as Peter pulled off his hoodie, exposing his web shooters on underneath.

Peter couldn’t bring himself to look at Harley, knowing his boyfriend would be freaked out beyond belief and probably at least a little bit hurt that Peter hadn’t told him he was Spider-Man.

There was so much noise outside the tower and Peter wasn’t sure if it was loud enough for everyone else to hear as well or if his senses were just going crazy again.

“Pete,” Tony called, snapping the younger boy out of his panic. He looked horrified as his gaze turned down to Peter’s wrists, a sigh of relief passing his lips when he noticed the kid at least had his web shooters. The iron spider suit was out of commission for a little while and it would’ve taken too long for Peter to go back to his room and get his regular suit, so he would have to make do with what he had. Tony was not very fond of that idea.

“Kid, make sure everyone here gets somewhere safe. Don’t let anything happen to them. Rhodey and I are gonna’ go scope out what’s going on outside. Get your suit on and meet us out when they’re all taken care of.”

Peter nodded, grabbing Abbie’s hand and jogging off down the hallway with everyone to the weapons storage room; the most secure room in the building.

He tried desperately to avoid eye contact with Harley, but just as he finished explaining what to do to keep everyone safe, he turned to leave and Harley grabbed onto his wrist.

Peter reluctantly turned to meet his eyes and felt a wave of guilt cover his entire body. Harley looked so hurt and afraid and Peter just wished he could stay there and explain everything and apologize and make sure Harley knew how much he loved him, but he couldn’t.

“Be careful,” Harley whispered, cupping Peter’s cheek in his hand. “Come back to me in one piece, Parker.”

Peter smiled sadly, rose up on his toes to kiss the taller boy once before locking the vault door and dashing out into the fray.

He noticed as he ran back into the main room, there were a few windows broke, but seemingly nothing unusual inside, so he hoped it was just Tony and Rhodey being too impatient to go outside the normal way. With his suit on, he swung out into the street, immediately noticing Colonel Rhodes flying towards the .

He followed the man around the side of the tower, swinging high and wide before immediately slinging himself against the side of the tower. Not good. Very not good.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter called, tapping into their comm system. “What the hell is that thing?”

Peter watched as this massive mechanical bird-like creature perched on top of the building right across the street from the tower.

“My best guess?” Tony answered, appearing in the air opposite Rhodey. “Barton when he hasn’t had his coffee.”

Peter chuckled a bit, rolling his eyes.

“I’m telling Uncle Clint you said that,” he chastised, crawling up the side of the tower so that he was level with Tony and Rhodey.

“Want me to try and web down it’s wings?” He offered, watching as the large metal wings began to slash through nearby buildings, shattering windows left and right.

“Good call, kid. We’ll try and figure out what’s powering this thing and shut it down,” Rhodey answered, blasting off towards the chest of the creature with Tony close behind.

Peter launched a web at the right wing, jumping off the side of the tower as the mechanical creature seemed to lose its balance a little. He smiled as he configured a plan of attack in his head.

He released his initial web once he was close enough before launching another right at the base of the wing and swinging himself up and around the wing. His web slowly started to cocoon the wing as he went around and around until there was nothing more than what looked like a cast around the giant metal wing. He strung a few webs to the end of it and attached them to the ground, but just as he cut across the start on the other side, the remaining wing sliced right through his web, sending him falling from about twenty stories.

He panicked for a moment before catching himself and swinging right back towards his target.

“Kid, you okay?” Tony’s voice in his ear helped calm him down a little as he nodded before mentally kicking himself.

“Yeah,” he breathed, still a bit shaken. “Yeah I’m good.”

“We found where it’s being powered from,” Rhodey explained. “Think you can pin the wings behind its back?”

Peter went right to work on it. “Easy peasy, Uncle Rhodey!”

It didn’t take much longer than that for the creature to be incapacitated and powered down, leaving the clean up for those with proper equipment. When they all three came together on the ground outside the tower, Peter was still a little winded and Tony slung the kid’s arm over his shoulders as they rode the elevator back up to the main floor with nothing but labored breathing to fill the silence.

Tony tried his best to convince Peter to go sit down somewhere and get some rest, but he was adamant about following the older man to retrieve their family from the safe room.

He had a lot of explaining to do.

Tony unlocked the heavy metal door and Pepper hurriedly stepped out, throwing her arms around her fiancé.

“Oh thank god,” May sighed, stepping out beside Pepper as she hugged her nephew tightly. “It’s so much worse when we can’t watch the news coverage.”

He hugged her back, instantly relaxing a little in her arms.

“Peter?”

He looked up to find Harley standing at the back of the group, his eyes red and swollen from crying and his arms wrapped around his stomach as if he were trying to comfort himself. Peter stepped carefully out of May’s hug and practically ran into Harley’s arms.

The taller boy curled around him protectively as he gripped fistfuls of Peter’s suit.

“You scared me,” he mumbled, just barely loud enough to be considered whispering. “You scared me so fucking bad, Peter Parker. Don’t you ever do that to me again.”

His words were fierce and desperate and there was definitely a bit of anger within them, but Peter had never heard him so scared. He could hear it loud and clear in his voice and it hurt him deep in his soul that he was the one that had caused it.

“I’m sorry,” he spoke, a tremor in his tone as he tried to stop himself from crying. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Harley didn’t say anything, only held him tighter, burying his face in the smaller boy’s hair.

Tony watched on carefully as he remembered how they acted the day the first met. Things had always felt so natural and comfortable between them, yet circumstances had thrown the biggest curveball into their plans and they were both terrified because of it.

This was never how Peter wanted to tell Harley. In fact, he wanted to tell Harley months ago, but things kept getting in the way. Every time he came home from patrol with a new injury, he never went to the tower for fear of Harley finding out and being scared out of his mind.

Peter would never forgive himself if something ever happened to Harley. It was clear in everything he did. Being Spider-Man was a huge risk to both of them and all Peter ever really wanted to do was protect him.

Tony knee Harley understood that. Still, finding out that your boyfriend of almost a year is a teenage vigilante who regularly fights alongside members of the Avengers and nearly gets himself killed every night? That shit was a nightmare. He knew it all too well in his experience with Pepper.

When Abbie announced that she was still hungry from their abandoned dinner, most of the family returned to the dining table to finish their meal.

All except for Peter and Harley.

Peter didn’t try to fight him when Harley grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway into his room. He let go as soon as the two stepped into the room and Peter felt his heart break when Harley turned to face him, tears brimming in his eyes.

“Harley-“

“When were you going to tell me?” Harley interrupted him, his hands shaking so bad that Peter wanted to hold them tightly until all of his nerves went away. “If we ever move in together? If we ever break up? If…if this shit _kills_ _you_ one day?”

Peter could feel himself getting choked up as he gave up on restraining himself and grabbed Harley’s arms, holding onto him tightly.

“I…I couldn’t risk it,” he breathed, trying to keep Harley’s eyes on him. “I tried to tell you so many times. I knew you needed to know and I trusted you so much, I just…I would never forgive myself if you got hurt because of this.” He bit his lip before speaking again. “It’s safer if no one out there knows that the best way to hurt me is to hurt you. I wouldn’t risk you for anything.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment as Harley gently raised his hands to cradle Peter’s head. His fingers curled into the smaller boy’s hair, his thumbs brushing against his jaw.

“I love you so much,” he spoke, more vulnerable and scared than Peter had ever seen him. “I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I ever lost you.”

Peter wrapped his arms around Harley’s middle, burying his face in his boyfriend’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, knowing it wasn’t enough. “I can’t imagine losing you either. I swear...I swear to you that I’ll make sure you know about everything superhero-related as soon as I do. I won’t do anything that’ll keep me from coming home to you, Harley.”

He could hear Harley’s shaky inhale as the boy’s arms tightened around him. It was so easy for Peter to just melt into Harley’s arms and forget the rest of the world, but he couldn’t. He desperately wished he could.

“As much as I am still mad at you for scaring me like that,” Harley spoke up, making Peter flinch a little. “Being Spider-Man’s secret boyfriend is like...really hot.”

Peter snorted and tilted his head back so he could see Harley’s face. The other was smiling at him and more tension seemed to release from his body.

“Really?” He teased, raising an eyebrow.

“Almost as hot as being regular Peter Parker’s totally-not-secret boyfriend,” Harley grinned, watching the surprised blush spread across Peter’s face. With a shy huff, the smaller boy rose on his tiptoes, kissing his boyfriend sweetly as they both tried to hold back their smiles.

“I love you,” Peter smiled softly, burying his head into Harley’s chest as he curled into him.

“I know,” Harley smirked, relishing Peter’s snort of laughter as he rested his chin on the other’s head. “I love you so much.”

**Author's Note:**

> I literally rewrote the whole battle scene and changed the villain all because I came up with that clint joke yeehaw   
> -  
> thanks so much for reading! as always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and they keep me motivated to write more so thank you all in advance!
> 
> xx  
> elle


End file.
